Thursday, January 1, 2015

10 Groovy Things to Do in January starring Dame Edna and Cheyenne Jackson

Since there are so many groovy plays, musicals, concerts and events, this is my monthly list to help promote a few of them (click on a title for more information or to purchase tickets):

1) Barbara Cook's Spotlight: Will Chase
January 9 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC
A Tony Award nominee for his "magnetic" (The New York Times) performance in the Broadway revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Will Chase (Rent, Miss Saigon, TV's Smash and Nashville) makes his Kennedy Center debut.

2) Will & Anthony Nunziata
January 10 at NYC's 54 Below
After five sold-out concerts, Will & Anthony Nunziata are back at 54 Below for the sixth time with a new concert featuring fresh takes of songs from Broadway to Italy to the Great American Songbook. Selections will include “Once in a Lifetime,” “On a Clear Day,” “Just in Time,” “I Believe in You,” “O Sole Mio,” Billy Joel’s “Lullaby,” and their signature mash-ups of classic songs including “Who Can I Turn To?/What Kind of Fool Am I?”

5) The Book of Merman
January 15 - February 15 at Mary's Attic in Chicago
Pride Films and Plays continues its 2014-15 season with this new musical comedy by Jeff Award-winning playwright Leo Schwartz. When two Mormons ring a doorbell marked E.M. in a small town, they have no idea that a certain Ethel will open the door. With some dazzling parody music and Schwartz’s original songs, laughter ensues throughout The Book of Merman catapulting you to places you didn’t know you wanted to go.

6) Accidentally Like a Martyr
January 15 - March 1 at A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago
In a dive-y gay bar on Manhattan’s lower east side, the regulars and the restless others do battle, jokeand drink their way through a lonely winter evening. Different generations and backgrounds collide, secrets are revealed, and old wounds are torn anew as these survivors come to grips with life, loss and aging in the 21st century. Family and friendship are the focus of this humor-filled drama in the tradition of The Time of Your Life and Small Craft Warnings.

7) Gigi
January 16 - February 12 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC
Starring Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical), Eric Schaeffer directs a world premiere production of Lerner and Loewe's musical comedy, where true love between a free-spirited young woman and a wealthy young playboy must overcome the conventions of turn-of-the-century Paris. This pre-Broadway engagement also features Tony Award winner Victoria Clark, three-time Tony nominee Dee Hoty, two-time Tony nominee Howard McGillin, Corey Cott and Steffanie Leigh.

8) Hamilton
January 20 - March 22 at NYC's Public Theater
From the groundbreaking team behind the Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights, comes a wildly inventive new show about the life, death and rhymes of a scrappy young immigrant who forever changed America: Alexander Hamilton. Tony and Grammy Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda takes the stage as the unlikely founding father determined to make his mark on the new nation as hungry and ambitious as he is. The cast also includes Brian d'Arcy James, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson, Leslie Odom Jr. and Phillipa Soo.

9) John Cameron Mitchell in Hedwig and The Angry Inch
January 21 - March 14 at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway
John Cameron Mitchell returns to the role he co-created with composer/lyricist Stephen Trask in their musical, Hedwig and The Angry Inch, which they debuted in the 1998 hit Off-Broadway production.

10) Rasheeda Speaking
January 27 - March 22 The New Group at NYC's Signature Center
Cynthia Nixon makes her directorial debut with this tense workplace thriller by Joel Drake Johnson that examines the realities of so-called "post-racial" America. Dianne Wiest and Tonya Pinkins star as once-friendly co-workers who are driven apart by their white boss' machinations. A chilling power struggle ensues that spins wildly out of control. Rasheeda Speaking is an incisive and shocking black comedy that keeps you in its claustrophobic grip until its final moment.